Dealing With The Lost (2a Of 3)

Illus: Thinking of the church reminds me of the painter who was hired to paint the outside of the local church. First he waited until it was a bright sunny day to start the job. Then he went out and bought all the paint that he thought he would need, and started to get to work. All was going well at first, but as he was nearing the end, he realized that he wasn't going to have enough paint to finish the job. So, rather than go out and buy some more paint, he decided that he was going to try and make the paint he had stretch by adding thinner to it. So he thinned out the paint a little and continued to paint. Unfortunately, he realized that he still wasn't going to make it so he added a little more thinner, and then a little more, and a little more and a still a little more. Finally, he finished the job and was just cleaning up when all of a sudden a great storm kicked up. Torrential rains poured down from the skies, washing all the painter's work away with it. Needless to say the man was very upset and angry. Here he had worked all day and now he was going to have to redo all this work!

Then, just as quickly, the sky's parted, and the sun was shining again, and the man heard a great voice from heaven: "REPAINT, AND THIN NO MORE."

When it comes to the church, regrettably there are a lot folks that seem to be cutting corners.

In the last sermon, I showed how the church should deal with the lost!

I want to remind you again that the ultimate purpose of the church is for the CHURCH TO REACH THE LOST with the Gospel of Christ.

It is obvious as you look at all that is taking place in the church today, that many folks don’t know the purpose of being here.

Illus: They remind me of a Priest who was called away for an emergency. Not wanting to leave the confession booth unattended, he called his Rabbi friend from across the street and asked him to cover for him. The Rabbi told him he wouldn't know what to say to those who came for confession. The Priest told him to come over and he'd stay with him for a little bit and show him what to do. The Rabbi comes and he and the Priest are in the confessional booth together.

In a few minutes a woman comes in and says

• "Father forgive me for I have sinned."

• The priest asks "What did you do?" The woman says, "I committed adultery."

• Priest: "How many times?"

• Woman: "Three times."

• Priest: "Say two Hail Mary's, put $5 in the “poor box” and go and sin no more."

A few minutes later a man enters the confessional.

• He says, "Father forgive me for I have sinned."

• Priest: "What did you do?"

• Man: "I committed adultery."

• Priest: "How many times?"

• Man: "Three times."

• Priest: "Say two Hail Mary's put $5 in the “poor box” and go and sin no more."

The rabbi tells the priest that he thinks he's got it so the priest leaves. A few minutes later another woman enters and says,

• "Father forgive me for I have sinned."

• Rabbi: "What did you do?"

• Woman: "I committed adultery."

• Rabbi: "How many times?"

• Woman: "Once."

• Rabbi: "Go do it two more times. We have a special this week -- three for $5."

It is obvious today that many in the church do not have the slightest idea of what church is all about.

We found out in the first sermon that there are 160 million people that feel that there are a lot more important things in life to do than to attend church. Of course, that is exactly what the devil wants them to think.

Illus: Officer Tori Matthews of the Southern California Humane Society got an emergency call.

A boy's pet iguana had been scared up a tree by a neighbor's dog. It then fell from the tree into a swimming pool, where it sank like a brick. Officer Matthews dove into the pool, emerging seconds later with the pet's limp body.

• As the Arizona Republic (2/14/95) reported, she thought, “Well, you do CPR on a person and a dog, why not an iguana?” So she put her lips to the iguana's.

• She later said, "Now that I look back on it, it was a pretty ugly animal to be kissing, but the last thing I wanted to do was tell this little boy that his iguana had died." The lizard responded to her efforts and made a full recovery.